Coliseum Theatre

Mitchell Library, Theatre Collection

Designed by Frank Matcham, the Coliseum was opened in 1905 by Moss Empires as a music hall. Productions included twice nightly variety shows and Christmas pantomimes. During the 1920s the theatre also staged a production of Wagner's Ring cycle, the acoustics being judged particularly favourable for opera.

The less-than-ideal location in Eglinton Street made it difficult to fill the theatre's 3,000 seats, and in 1925 it was converted to a cinema. The Coliseum was the first cinema to show a "talkie" in Glasgow when in 1929 it screened The Singing Fool.

The cinema closed in 1980 but the Coliseum reopened as a bingo hall in 1987, and is still in use in 2003.

Reference: Mitchell Library, Theatre Collection

Reproduced with the permission of Glasgow City Council, Libraries Information and Learning